Gotland Sheepapalooza

Look at me actually finishing a project I've started!! Not quite yet, but close... 

After painting the sheep heads and legs I began making the bodies out of chicken wire.   It's always fun when I start a project and end up finding exactly the perfect supplies; in this case the local hardware store in New Germany had a variety of black zip ties (commonly used for electrical stuff) which were ideal for "stitching" together pieces of chickenwire to mold a sheep body shape.  I attached the heads by using a staple gun, and stapling them to the chickenwire, which didn't actually work that great, so I stapled fabric strips to the heads, and tied them down to the wire.

Gotland Sheep #3 frame on Swoon's veranda

I'm pleased that once I started working away the whole project made sense.   It became apparent that the best use of all that fabric was to cut it into MANY strips and tie them to the chickenwire, so it would read as "wool" from a distance.  I admit I got inspired to do this by watching puppet maker teacher friend Andrew Kim make a giant chicken parade puppet in Taiwan.  LOL or rather, watching Andy's wife Kathy tie hundreds of "feathers" to the puppet...

Giant Hen parade puppet by Andrew Kim, Dream Parade, Shijr City Taiwan, 2005

Sheep #1 with fabric strip "wool" in front of Swoon sign

I got to work cutting up many many many fabric strips, mostly while watching youtube videos with teachings by Louise Hay and Abraham-Hicks (lots of great "law of attraction" type stuff).  I decided I'd love to attract some sheep helpers to make the tedious part of the job more fun, and it wasn't hard!

Sheep helpers engrossed in helping make sheep woolly

Super talented painter/ friend Evgenia Makogon heeded my cry for help and showed up with her two kids and her brother's two kids!  They got right into it and did an amazing job, us adults cutting fabric strips and the kids tying them to the frames!

Sheep helpers looking up to smile for the camera thus demonstrating that helping make sheep is fun!!!

Sadly my free child labour crew had a swimming party to go to, believe it or not the older 2 girls wanted to stay and help!  After they left I was pleasantly surprised by a visit from master potter/ Nova Scotia Potters Guild co-president/ friend Sharon Fiske who dropped in to Swoon, dressed coincidentally in an outfit that matches the Swoon sign!  Sharon helped me shut down for the day and move the flock on to the lawn.

Sharon Fiske attired in Swoon Sign Camouflage and posing with flock of Gotland Sheep

I'm quite pleased with how the sheep are turning out, and hope they will be relatively weatherproof for the Swoon lawn... It's fun to make life-sized animals and to entertain the commuters of the Hammonds Plains Road, and to suck people into helping make big art!  It's strictly for fun as these pieces aren't for sale, so I'm all for volunteer help.   I'm already daydreaming of some birds that I could make using this method (papier mache feet and beaks, chicken wire/fabric bodies).... hmmmmm....

I'll be gallery sitting at Swoon this coming Sunday and Monday 12 - 6 (Sept 2 - 3rd) with my bag of fabric to finish fleecing the sheep!  Hence the post title "Sheepapalooza"!  Any and all are welcome to join in the fun!  I almost decided not to leave the sheep on the lawn until they were 100% done, but somehow I like the thought of the public getting to view a work in progress, showing how labour - intensive art making can be, as well as engaging others in the process!

Gotland Sheep Update and How To Make Papier Mache Paste

So I've finally returned to the Gotland Sheep project that has been taking up my living room for the spring/summer... Now that the book is in print, I'm on a mission to finish these things.

People often ask what I use for papier mache paste.  I used to use flour and water but the drawbacks are it's brutally hard on your hands, not really all that sticky, and if you store giant sculptures in your parent's garage they may get eaten by rats (just saying).

In 2002 when I went to volunteer on the Isle Wilde fest on Vashon Island, Washington State I was taught how to make cornstarch paste by some giant puppet makers (meaning they build giant puppets, not that they were giants themselves).  Some "makers of giant puppets" I suppose.  Cornstarch is awesome!  I never measure anything but I did for the purposes of this post.

For a pot of paste,  boil a pot of water on the stove... in this case I boiled 2 litres.

While waiting for the water to boil, put some cornstarch in a bowl...

Mix with  some cold water

When the water is boiling quickly mix the cornstarch/cold water mixture into the boiling water.  You should really do this with a whisk. I used a fork (so it's a bit lumpy).  Turn the heat down but boil this paste for a few minutes while whisking/stirring.  Beware of splatters that can leap out of the pot and hit your face (it has happened to me on occasion, if your paste is splattering stand back!)  The paste should be at least as thick as runny snot.  The paste I made below was perhaps a bit on the thick side, but still works.  wait til it cools then papier mache away.  I think a good ratio to use would be approx 1/3 cup of dry cornstarch to 1 liter of water.  It seems to be stickiest if you use it while still warm, but will be good for a day or two.

Here are the gotland sheep getting their final coats of papier mache, while being watched over by my shepherd mix dog, Jersi:

And, as of last night the sheep legs and heads are mostly painted.  I'm using glossy black Artist's Touch indoor/outdoor paint which I hope will make them relatively weatherproof.  I have marine varnish as well that I may coat them with:

As soon as I'm done painting them I'll be making their bodies out of chicken wire and all that fabric I bought so cheap. I'm not actually sure how I'm going to do this but have sort of been following the voice in my head that sometimes suggests things to me such as "Let's make life-sized sheep!"  Things generally work out fine when I'm working intuitively in this way, so I'm curious to see how they turn out! And excited to get them out of my living room and on to the lawn of Swoon!

Putting Food By - making pesto

I had no idea how easy it was to make pesto until Helen sent me the recipe, it's very simple and easy to freeze!  I grew pesto in containers this year, here is a shot of my 7 pots of pesto; which I grew from one packet of seeds from Halifax Seed.

These plants had already been picked over, twice, I've picked about 10 cups of leaves so far!  I've both heard from Helen, and read in the awesome book by  Nikki Jabour ("Year Round Vegetable Gardener") that if you pinch off the flowers as they grow, and pick leaves, more leaves will keep growing.  Good to know, as a gardening newbie I figured you grow a plant until it's done.  But no, I've had this amazing supply of basil leaves.  If I had been more diligent about picking and didn't cram all my plants into 7 pots I'm sure I'd have even more.  Next year!

Here is the recipe, reprinted from an email to me from Helen Opie: (Helen also has a website, www.helenopie.com, but it seems to be down right now

"Pesto (base, without cheese)

 

Good as sandwich spread (with cheese & onion!), on potatoes,fish (dill!), spaghetti squash as well as pasta, in a salad dressing, or any other place you want a bit of herbaceous pleasure.

In a food processor or blender put:

2 c coarsely chopped basil leaves*

1 c olive oil or p'nut oil, NOT sunflower oil

2-3 Tb pine nuts OR walnuts, sunflower seeds,

or almonds (= thickener)

1 clove garlic (more if desired)

Black Pepper to taste (1/2 tsp or more)

* Other herbs can be used also: dill, parsley, cilantro, chervil, or a mixture.

If necessary, fill out scant herbs with spinach, up to 1/2 c or 1/4 recipe.

For better storage, mix in 1/4 c grated Parmesan + 1/4 c grated Sardo or

Romano cheeses when thawed and ready to use.  Or just grate cheese over the food.

Put in small jars to freeze for winter.  Will keep in a jar in the fridge if you keep eating

it so top layer is always removed (long) before it moulds. "

Blender full of pesto!

Ice cube tray #1 ready to freeze

I've made a double batch (sunflower seeds) and a triple batch (walnuts) so far, I think I prefer the walnut version.  I mixed the pesto in my blender, then taking Helen's advice for a space saving way to store pesto, I poured it into ice-cube trays which I then froze and popped into zip-loc bags to freeze. It's delicious!

What I Think About Fracking and the $15,000 cabbage story

Brendan pointed out to me that Nova Scotia is allowing an oil/gas company to move ahead with seeing if fracking for shale gas around Lake Ainslie (Cape Breton) would be a lucrative thing to do.  Arrghh!!  It makes me sad to think that a tiny province like Nova Scotia with such delicious drinking water in a time when the world is running out of water, would even dare to consider allowing this process into its borders.  

Fracking works by pumping craploads of toxic, carcinogenic chemicals underground.  It's been implicated in causing earthquakes, spoiling wells and harming people and livestock.  

Yes people need jobs, but I think more than that people need food and water.  How about support for more organic farms over fracking?  Or support for locally produced furniture and instruments made from sustainably harvested Nova Scotia wood? Or support for Nova Scotia's vibrant community of artisans, craftspeople, potters, writers, musicians, and other creative types, could we not somehow export this resource rather than explore for gas?

We've seem to have gotten all wrapped up in Money, and the hoarding of it for money's sake.  We seem to have forgotten that money originated merely to facilitate the bartering of goods and services.  Since Nixon dropped the gold standard in 1971 on the American dollar, and so many other countries rely on "fractional reserve banking" is really just worthless paper. I  watch a lot of documentaries when I sculpt, and IMO the global economic system as it is, is not sustainable.  You can't drink money.  You can't eat money.  And if money becomes meaningless, then what are you going to eat and drink?  

My father was born in Katerburg Poland in 1925, it's now part of the Ukraine.  He told me stories of his family being shipped off to a Siberian workcamp in 1939 by the Russians, and in 1941 these Poles being brought by train to England to help fight Hitler.  On their journey (by train and boat) from Siberia to England, his mother asked him and one of his brothers to go to a market in Tehran to buy food, with all the money he had earned that year.  He could afford one cabbage for them to share.  He told me the value of that cabbage in modern currency was $15,000 due to food scarcity in the war.  For the rest of his life, my father took great pride in growing as much of his own food as possible.

It seems to me that to gamble our province's drinking water, one of the most important ingredients to human survival, in exchange for money and some jobs is not environmentally or socially responsible.    I believe in the precautionary principle. Once the chemicals are added to the watershed, you can't get them back out.

I'd encourage people to watch a documentary called Gasland: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558250/

As well as a documentary called "For Love Of Water" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149583/
before deciding whether Nova Scotia needs this kind of development.

I'd also invite people to look at a map of Canada, and consider the size of Nova Scotia relative to the size of BC and Alberta.  We have a much tinier landbase to gamble on this type of industry and its associated environmental impacts.

Getting Unstuck

Now that my book is printed and out there, my focus is turning back towards sculpting and putting food by.  While I've made and finished a couple new papier mache pieces, I've not touched clay since moving from my Halifax home to the country.  

"Sam The Groundhog" papier mache, acrylic paint, available at Swoon a tribute to the groundhog that lives under/around my kiln shed

Today I finally grabbed a ball of clay and sculpted a fox figurine.  Ahhhh... it felt so good to get making again!  Often when I'm forming something the sculpture starts "speaking" to me.  The message this fox had was "more sculpting, less worrying". 

Freshly sculpted stoneware fox figurine

I've been invited to participate by wildlife artist Sandy Moser in the 2nd Annual Hope For Wildlife Art Festival, which will be taking place September 29th 2012, at 11am - 4pm in Cole Harbour, at Cole Harbour Place in the Harbour Room.  I'm so pleased because I think highly of this organization, as a wildlife lover I'm looking forward to contributing.  And, it's a win/win because the terms of participating are very artist-friendly.   Now that my kiln is wired and good to go, I should actually be able to make some new work for this event!  I've been getting inspired by looking at the creatures on the Hope For Wildlife Society website.

Fox figurine with one of my fox bowls for scale.  The mug is by Joan Bruneau, an amazing potter with a shop in Lunenburg: "Nova Terra Cotta".  I stuck it in the shot because its such a great mug!

Heaven, Hell, Chopsticks, Deer

I saw this great story on Facebook the other day and then couldn't find the exact one again, this is close though:

"I once heard a story about a visit to heaven and hell. In both places the visitor saw many people seated at a table on which many delicious foods were laid out. In both places chopsticks over a meter long were tied to their right hands, while their left hands were tied to their chairs.

In hell, however much they stretched out their arms, the chopsticks were too long for them to g

et food into their mouths. They grew impatient and got their hands and chopsticks tangled with one another's. The delicacies were scattered here and there.

In heaven, on the other hand, people happily used the long chopsticks to pick out someone else's favorite food and feed it to him, and in turn they were being fed by others. They all enjoyed their meal in harmony."

 

-Shundo Aoyama

Ironically this morning deer got into the zucchini and ate a bunch of leaves... maybe sharing applies to interspecies relationships too!  I suppose if we're planning on having a deer to eat this fall it's only fair to fatten it up on organic produce!

Garden Update

So it's been a few weeks since I posted pics of the garden... We were away for a few days and I came back surprised to see how much things have grown!  Seeing as this year we haven't even really tried to garden it makes me excited for next year, when we'll be able to try growing all kinds of other vegetables too!

We finally had a couple days of much needed rain, here are some progress pics I just took:

 

 A view of the garden looking to the right, deer had gotten into the squash so we put up some fencing to discourage them.  The pumpkin patch is in the foreground.

View of the part of the garden where we folded back the plastic. Currants, broccoli, kale, beans, squash - everything grew a lot!

Squash patch gone wild... zucchini, acorn, butternut, buttercup, spaghetti... I'm already picking zucchinis and looking up recipes.

The teepees that Brendan built are starting to fill in with pole beans.

Beep Beep the cat, fierce huntress and protector of the garden.  She always follows me down to it to check on her catnip patch and look for rodents.  She's posing with some pots of cilantro.

The basil is getting big, will soon be time to make pesto.

 Shot of the pumpkin patch which is getting really big, with a few young pumpkins started already.

Giant pumpkin plant climbing up some old raspberry bushes.

The herb garden is filling in with mint and oregano, catnip and one lavender plant.  I'll be expanding this!  Hot mint tea is delicious, you can just put fresh chopped mint in a bodum and steep it like you're making coffee.  It's good chilled with honey too.

  Giant Russian Sunflowers and onions, the onions aren't doing so well but the sunflowers are getting bigger.

Our poor tomato patch... after the bad experience with poor soil and some cold weather, they were starting to grow a lot! But then deer came along and topped about 2/3 - 3/4 of the tomato plants we had.  This one has some fruit at least, so we'll get some tomatoes but not the truckload I was hoping for.  Next year!

Delicious harvest, zucchini, kale and some herbs.  I didn't realize exactly how good kale is for you until I looked it up. It has a lot of vitamin K among other good things.